Screen capture blocking

Learn how to block screenshots, screen recording, or screen sharing applications.

In this article, you will learn:

• How screen capture blocking works
• How to enable screen capture blocking on endpoints with Windows 7

How it works

Screen capture blocking only blocks the part of screen which contains sensitive data. This way, you can still take screenshots of application windows without sensitive content or share a non-sensitive part of your screen in a video chat.

Screen capture blocking does not depend on user action detection, which means there is nothing to be logged.

How to enable screen capture blocking on Windows 7

On Windows 7, screen capture blocking requires Desktop Window Manager (DWM.exe) to be running. On newer operating system, the feature works without limitations.

To check if Desktop Window Manager is running correctly on all your endpoints, go to Maintenance → Endpoint overview. Problems with DWM.exe will be reported in the Missing SW column.

To force DWM to run on Windows 7 endpoints:

1. Obtain an aero.msstyles file from a Windows 7 machine running DWM. You should be able to locate it in C:\windows\resources\themes\aero\
2. Store the file in a network location, e.g. \\server\share\aero.msstyles
3. In Group Policy Management Editor go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Personalization
4. Set Force a specific visual style file or force Windows Classic to Enabled and set your network path to the aero.msstyle file.
5. Set Prevent changing theme to Enabled.
6. In Group Policy Management Editor go to User configuration\Preferences\Windows settings\Registry
7. Add a new Registry Item:
   Action: Update
   Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   Key Path: \Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
   Value name: Composition
   Value type: REG_DWORD
   Value data: 1 (decimal)